In April of 2013 I moved back to Maine after being away for many years. I started reconnecting with friends though Facebook and hearing stories of how their lives have been over the     years. One person I sent a friend request to was Pam McLain the mother of Joyce McLain, who was murdered in our little town back in 1980. Our town was the Norman Rockwell type town so I thought as a young man. No one took their keys out of the car or locked the door and most of the time didn’t turn the car off while running into the store for a gallon of milk on the way home from work. Everyone know everyone and everyone business. Joyce was our hometown Celebrity everyone knew her and loved her. She could sing, act, play sports and loved to hang out with her friends. She was talented by far I would say one of the most talented in our school. It was painful to ask Pam about Joyce and her case, I like so many had moved away and had not kept up with the case I honestly thought it would be solved. I mean how could it not be in a town of 3,000 people right? But as Pam share how the case had not been solved I felt her pain, that pain that no one could ever know unless you are the mother of a murdered child.

I went to bed that night and still could not get that feeling out of my mind. The next day I spoke with Pam again to get an idea of what needed to be done to bring Joyce, Pam and Wendy (who was in my class in school) justice. After talking to her my first thought we need to bring in news media, we need Nancy Grace here, she will get to the bottom of this foolishness. I started emailing, Dateline, Nancy Grace, 20/20, and just about every show I could find online about unsolved cases. I heard nothing.  I reached out to others for advice and heard of a new show starting up,” Cold Justice” and I got in contact with someone who got me a name and number for a producer of the show. We spoke and I sent them a bio of Joyce’s case and I was so excited to think this new show was going to come in and save the day, give those people who did this to our town what they deserve and bring some sort of relief to our broken town.  I had also called an old family friends and State Representative Steve Stanley and United States Representative Mike Michaud to see what they could do to help.  I had no idea really what to do I just knew I wanted to do something. I didn’t even know there were others in Maine who had lost loved ones and going through the same pain that Pam was living with. I googled Joyce McLain and started to read newspaper articles of other Cold Cases all though Maine.

In August of 2013 I had reached out to Cold Justice, Steve Stanley, Mike Michaud and now the Attorney General’s office and Deputy Attorney Bill Stokes to see if we could get Cold Justice to look at Joyce’s case. I was quickly told the show was never going to be allowed by the Attorney General’s office. (I was so angry) Mr. Stokes and I seems to be at odds as a sort of war of statements played out in the Bangor Daily News over their refusal to allow what I viewed as a fresh look at Joyce’s case from someone else, experts in the field, what could be wrong about that? After their frustrating actions and speaking to Pam I decided it we cannot have a show then we needed to give families options, after all Pam has waited 34 years for justice how much longer should she wait?  So I reached out once again to Rep. Steve Stanley and we drafted “Joyce’s Law”. What this law would do is give parents after 20 years the ability to have a say in who looks at their loved ones case. I thought for sure this would be a winner and that would take away the Attorney General’s control over all cold cases in Maine.  While reading old newspaper articles on the other cold cases I came across a story about a bill in 2002 for a cold case squad that had been signed into Law but never funded. Once again I picked up the phone and called Steve and Mike and asked them how do we get a Cold Case Squad and can we get this funded? I asked Mike if he could look into Federal funding. Steve Stanley and I drafted another bill and sent that off to the Reviser’s office (news story).  I knew we needed to get support for this squad so I created on Facebook the “fund Cold Case Squad Maine” page.  On Facebook I found many families who were using Social Media to share information about their loved ones who were missing and murdered. I soon realized this was a far bigger issue then I had ever thought it to be and these people all need help to give them closure.  In November 2013 We had a meeting with Governor Paul LePage (news story) and asked for his support, although he spoke supportively he declined to fund the bill or to make any commitment to fund it. He later said if the Legislature was going to take up Bill LS-1734 they needed to fund it.

Within days of us submitting Joyce’s Law we learned that we were never going to get this passed without changing the Maine Constitution. Everyone was heartbroken, I am sure no one more then Pam McLain who once again had to hear NO. Bill Stokes had made a comment in a Bangor Daily Newspaper story by Nick Sambides Jr.  He said something about “we would be better served if we got a “cold case squad” in Maine”. I called Mr. Stokes and we talked about a squad and how it would work and what it would need.  Bill LD-1734 fit everything Mr. Stokes had said and would give those families what they so desperately wanted a fresh set of eyes on their loved ones case. I had never been involved in anything like this before. I had read how bills were passed and all but had never gone through the step by step process.  On February 20th, 2014 we had our first hearing before the Judiciary Committee. We had families share their stories and the Committee passed the bill and he went on to the Appropriations Committee for funding.  Steve Stanley and I had a meeting with Governor Paul LePage’s legal aide to go over issues related to the Cold Case Squad before the hearing and asked if the Governor’s office would send someone to speak for the funding of the squad. Governor LePage did as well as Deputy Attorney general Bill Stokes came and spoke in favor of bill LD-1734.  In April 2014 we had a lot going on. Art Jette who is with Parents of Murdered Children Maine has been so supportive of us help get our story on the radio show Ric Tylor and George Hale Show, We heard from U.S. Representative Mike Michaud that there might be some federal funds for the cold case squad in Maine. At the time that seemed like a good idea but in the end it is what stopped the Committee from funding LD-1734. All the members of the Committee voted to allow the application for the Federal funds to move forward and not use State funds. In April 2014 Governor Paul LePage signed bill Ld-1734 into Law unfunded. This is the second time in Maine a bill for a Cold Case Squad was unfunded. I was extremely angry.  I moved to Maine because I was battling cancer and wanted to do something that would be helpful to the State I loved and for the people I grew up with as well as those I had gotten to know over the past 18 months. I was very emotional and felt I guess in some ways I would dies before I see this finished. I have invested so much into bill LD-1734 that it felt like I had a part of myself cut away that day the appropriations Committee voted not to fund LD-1734. Every Committee Member spoke about the importance of this Squad and how they agreed that Maine needed to have one but then refused to fund it.  My thoughts went back to those hearings where we heard all the other issues being talked about and how they were going to spend millions of dollars on a bridge in Bath that would be used once a year or money spent on wood issue but to get killers off our streets or give families justice they could not do that they had to pass the buck. 

After the shock of seeing everyone’s hard work rejected by the Legislature I took to Facebook and together with the supporter we made a plan to use the upcoming election to keep attention on the squad and to challenge every candidate running for office to come out and support the funding of a cold case squad. Mike Michaud was the only candidate to come out and commit to putting funding for the squad in his first budget.

In 2015 we start a new Legislative Session State Senator Linda Valentino, Rep. Karl Ward and Rep. Steven Stanley all summited bills to fund a cold case squad. Senator Valentino took the lead on bill LD1121. This is a quote I read at the start of this process and has stuck with me.

“They want you to keep your mouth shut.
If you keep quiet, they’ll get away with murder." Speak Up! 

Author ~ Kyle Gregory David Quinn